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Getting information about your organization's policies

Focus mode
Getting information about your organization's policies - AWS Organizations

This topic describes various ways to get details about the policies in your organization. These procedures apply to all policy types. You must enable a policy type on the organization root before you can attach policies of that type to any entities in that organization root.

Listing all policies

Minimum permissions

To list the policies within your organization, you must have the following permission:

  • organizations:ListPolicies

You can view the policies in your organization in the AWS Management Console or by using an AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI) command or an AWS SDK operation.

To list all of the policies in your organization
  1. Sign in to the AWS Organizations console. You must sign in as an IAM user, assume an IAM role, or sign in as the root user (not recommended) in the organization’s management account.

  2. On the Policies page, choose the policy type that you want to list.

    If the specified policy type is enabled, the console displays a list of all of the policies of that type that are currently available in the organization.

  3. Return to the Policies page and repeat for each policy type.

To list all of the policies in your organization
  1. Sign in to the AWS Organizations console. You must sign in as an IAM user, assume an IAM role, or sign in as the root user (not recommended) in the organization’s management account.

  2. On the Policies page, choose the policy type that you want to list.

    If the specified policy type is enabled, the console displays a list of all of the policies of that type that are currently available in the organization.

  3. Return to the Policies page and repeat for each policy type.

The following code examples show how to use ListPolicies.

.NET
AWS SDK for .NET
Note

There's more on GitHub. Find the complete example and learn how to set up and run in the AWS Code Examples Repository.

using System; using System.Threading.Tasks; using Amazon.Organizations; using Amazon.Organizations.Model; /// <summary> /// Shows how to list the AWS Organizations policies associated with an /// organization. /// </summary> public class ListPolicies { /// <summary> /// Initializes an Organizations client object, and then calls its /// ListPoliciesAsync method. /// </summary> public static async Task Main() { // Create the client object using the default account. IAmazonOrganizations client = new AmazonOrganizationsClient(); // The value for the Filter parameter is required and must must be // one of the following: // AISERVICES_OPT_OUT_POLICY // BACKUP_POLICY // SERVICE_CONTROL_POLICY // TAG_POLICY var request = new ListPoliciesRequest { Filter = "SERVICE_CONTROL_POLICY", MaxResults = 5, }; var response = new ListPoliciesResponse(); try { do { response = await client.ListPoliciesAsync(request); response.Policies.ForEach(p => DisplayPolicies(p)); if (response.NextToken is not null) { request.NextToken = response.NextToken; } } while (response.NextToken is not null); } catch (AWSOrganizationsNotInUseException ex) { Console.WriteLine(ex.Message); } } /// <summary> /// Displays information about the Organizations policies associated /// with an organization. /// </summary> /// <param name="policy">An Organizations policy summary to display /// information on the console.</param> private static void DisplayPolicies(PolicySummary policy) { string policyInfo = $"{policy.Id} {policy.Name}\t{policy.Description}"; Console.WriteLine(policyInfo); } }
  • For API details, see ListPolicies in AWS SDK for .NET API Reference.

CLI
AWS CLI

To retrieve a list of all policies in an organization of a certain type

The following example shows you how to get a list of SCPs, as specified by the filter parameter:

aws organizations list-policies --filter SERVICE_CONTROL_POLICY

The output includes a list of policies with summary information:

{ "Policies": [ { "Type": "SERVICE_CONTROL_POLICY", "Name": "AllowAllS3Actions", "AwsManaged": false, "Id": "p-examplepolicyid111", "Arn": "arn:aws:organizations::111111111111:policy/service_control_policy/p-examplepolicyid111", "Description": "Enables account admins to delegate permissions for any S3 actions to users and roles in their accounts." }, { "Type": "SERVICE_CONTROL_POLICY", "Name": "AllowAllEC2Actions", "AwsManaged": false, "Id": "p-examplepolicyid222", "Arn": "arn:aws:organizations::111111111111:policy/service_control_policy/p-examplepolicyid222", "Description": "Enables account admins to delegate permissions for any EC2 actions to users and roles in their accounts." }, { "AwsManaged": true, "Description": "Allows access to every operation", "Type": "SERVICE_CONTROL_POLICY", "Id": "p-FullAWSAccess", "Arn": "arn:aws:organizations::aws:policy/service_control_policy/p-FullAWSAccess", "Name": "FullAWSAccess" } ] }
  • For API details, see ListPolicies in AWS CLI Command Reference.

Python
SDK for Python (Boto3)
Note

There's more on GitHub. Find the complete example and learn how to set up and run in the AWS Code Examples Repository.

def list_policies(policy_filter, orgs_client): """ Lists the policies for the account, limited to the specified filter. :param policy_filter: The kind of policies to return. :param orgs_client: The Boto3 Organizations client. :return: The list of policies found. """ try: response = orgs_client.list_policies(Filter=policy_filter) policies = response["Policies"] logger.info("Found %s %s policies.", len(policies), policy_filter) except ClientError: logger.exception("Couldn't get %s policies.", policy_filter) raise else: return policies
  • For API details, see ListPolicies in AWS SDK for Python (Boto3) API Reference.

The following code examples show how to use ListPolicies.

.NET
AWS SDK for .NET
Note

There's more on GitHub. Find the complete example and learn how to set up and run in the AWS Code Examples Repository.

using System; using System.Threading.Tasks; using Amazon.Organizations; using Amazon.Organizations.Model; /// <summary> /// Shows how to list the AWS Organizations policies associated with an /// organization. /// </summary> public class ListPolicies { /// <summary> /// Initializes an Organizations client object, and then calls its /// ListPoliciesAsync method. /// </summary> public static async Task Main() { // Create the client object using the default account. IAmazonOrganizations client = new AmazonOrganizationsClient(); // The value for the Filter parameter is required and must must be // one of the following: // AISERVICES_OPT_OUT_POLICY // BACKUP_POLICY // SERVICE_CONTROL_POLICY // TAG_POLICY var request = new ListPoliciesRequest { Filter = "SERVICE_CONTROL_POLICY", MaxResults = 5, }; var response = new ListPoliciesResponse(); try { do { response = await client.ListPoliciesAsync(request); response.Policies.ForEach(p => DisplayPolicies(p)); if (response.NextToken is not null) { request.NextToken = response.NextToken; } } while (response.NextToken is not null); } catch (AWSOrganizationsNotInUseException ex) { Console.WriteLine(ex.Message); } } /// <summary> /// Displays information about the Organizations policies associated /// with an organization. /// </summary> /// <param name="policy">An Organizations policy summary to display /// information on the console.</param> private static void DisplayPolicies(PolicySummary policy) { string policyInfo = $"{policy.Id} {policy.Name}\t{policy.Description}"; Console.WriteLine(policyInfo); } }
  • For API details, see ListPolicies in AWS SDK for .NET API Reference.

CLI
AWS CLI

To retrieve a list of all policies in an organization of a certain type

The following example shows you how to get a list of SCPs, as specified by the filter parameter:

aws organizations list-policies --filter SERVICE_CONTROL_POLICY

The output includes a list of policies with summary information:

{ "Policies": [ { "Type": "SERVICE_CONTROL_POLICY", "Name": "AllowAllS3Actions", "AwsManaged": false, "Id": "p-examplepolicyid111", "Arn": "arn:aws:organizations::111111111111:policy/service_control_policy/p-examplepolicyid111", "Description": "Enables account admins to delegate permissions for any S3 actions to users and roles in their accounts." }, { "Type": "SERVICE_CONTROL_POLICY", "Name": "AllowAllEC2Actions", "AwsManaged": false, "Id": "p-examplepolicyid222", "Arn": "arn:aws:organizations::111111111111:policy/service_control_policy/p-examplepolicyid222", "Description": "Enables account admins to delegate permissions for any EC2 actions to users and roles in their accounts." }, { "AwsManaged": true, "Description": "Allows access to every operation", "Type": "SERVICE_CONTROL_POLICY", "Id": "p-FullAWSAccess", "Arn": "arn:aws:organizations::aws:policy/service_control_policy/p-FullAWSAccess", "Name": "FullAWSAccess" } ] }
  • For API details, see ListPolicies in AWS CLI Command Reference.

Python
SDK for Python (Boto3)
Note

There's more on GitHub. Find the complete example and learn how to set up and run in the AWS Code Examples Repository.

def list_policies(policy_filter, orgs_client): """ Lists the policies for the account, limited to the specified filter. :param policy_filter: The kind of policies to return. :param orgs_client: The Boto3 Organizations client. :return: The list of policies found. """ try: response = orgs_client.list_policies(Filter=policy_filter) policies = response["Policies"] logger.info("Found %s %s policies.", len(policies), policy_filter) except ClientError: logger.exception("Couldn't get %s policies.", policy_filter) raise else: return policies
  • For API details, see ListPolicies in AWS SDK for Python (Boto3) API Reference.

AWS SDK for .NET
Note

There's more on GitHub. Find the complete example and learn how to set up and run in the AWS Code Examples Repository.

using System; using System.Threading.Tasks; using Amazon.Organizations; using Amazon.Organizations.Model; /// <summary> /// Shows how to list the AWS Organizations policies associated with an /// organization. /// </summary> public class ListPolicies { /// <summary> /// Initializes an Organizations client object, and then calls its /// ListPoliciesAsync method. /// </summary> public static async Task Main() { // Create the client object using the default account. IAmazonOrganizations client = new AmazonOrganizationsClient(); // The value for the Filter parameter is required and must must be // one of the following: // AISERVICES_OPT_OUT_POLICY // BACKUP_POLICY // SERVICE_CONTROL_POLICY // TAG_POLICY var request = new ListPoliciesRequest { Filter = "SERVICE_CONTROL_POLICY", MaxResults = 5, }; var response = new ListPoliciesResponse(); try { do { response = await client.ListPoliciesAsync(request); response.Policies.ForEach(p => DisplayPolicies(p)); if (response.NextToken is not null) { request.NextToken = response.NextToken; } } while (response.NextToken is not null); } catch (AWSOrganizationsNotInUseException ex) { Console.WriteLine(ex.Message); } } /// <summary> /// Displays information about the Organizations policies associated /// with an organization. /// </summary> /// <param name="policy">An Organizations policy summary to display /// information on the console.</param> private static void DisplayPolicies(PolicySummary policy) { string policyInfo = $"{policy.Id} {policy.Name}\t{policy.Description}"; Console.WriteLine(policyInfo); } }
  • For API details, see ListPolicies in AWS SDK for .NET API Reference.

Listing the policies attached to a root, OU, or account

Minimum permissions

To list the policies that are attached to a root, organizational unit (OU), or account within your organization, you must have the following permission:

  • organizations:ListPoliciesForTarget with a Resource element in the same policy statement that includes the Amazon Resource Name (ARN) of the specified target (or "*")

AWS Management Console
To list all policies that are attached directly to a specified root, OU, or account
  1. Sign in to the AWS Organizations console. You must sign in as an IAM user, assume an IAM role, or sign in as the root user (not recommended) in the organization’s management account.

  2. On the AWS accounts page, choose the name of the root, OU, or account whose policies you want to view. You might have to expand OUs (choose the Gray cloud icon representing cloud computing or storage services. ) to find the OU that you want.

  3. On the Root, OU, or account page, choose the Policies tab.

    The Policies tab displays all of the policies attached to that root, OU, or account, grouped by policy type.

AWS CLI & AWS SDKs
To list all policies that are attached directly to a specified root, OU, or account

You can use one of the following commands to list policies that are attached to an entity:

  • AWS CLI: list-policies-for-target

    The following example lists all of the service control policies attached to the specified OU. You must specify both the ID of the root, OU, or account, and the type of policy that you want to list.

    $ aws organizations list-policies-for-target \ --target-id ou-a1b2-f6g7h222 \ --filter SERVICE_CONTROL_POLICY { "Policies": [ { "Id": "p-FullAWSAccess", "Arn": "arn:aws:organizations::aws:policy/service_control_policy/p-FullAWSAccess", "Name": "FullAWSAccess", "Description": "Allows access to every operation", "Type": "SERVICE_CONTROL_POLICY", "AwsManaged": true } ] }
  • AWS SDKs: ListPoliciesForTarget

To list all policies that are attached directly to a specified root, OU, or account
  1. Sign in to the AWS Organizations console. You must sign in as an IAM user, assume an IAM role, or sign in as the root user (not recommended) in the organization’s management account.

  2. On the AWS accounts page, choose the name of the root, OU, or account whose policies you want to view. You might have to expand OUs (choose the Gray cloud icon representing cloud computing or storage services. ) to find the OU that you want.

  3. On the Root, OU, or account page, choose the Policies tab.

    The Policies tab displays all of the policies attached to that root, OU, or account, grouped by policy type.

Listing all roots, OUs, and accounts that a policy is attached to

Minimum permissions

To list the entities that a policy is attached to, you must have the following permission:

  • organizations:ListTargetsForPolicy with a Resource element in the same policy statement that includes the ARN of the specified policy (or "*")

AWS Management Console
To list all roots, OUs, and accounts that have a specified policy attached
  1. Sign in to the AWS Organizations console. You must sign in as an IAM user, assume an IAM role, or sign in as the root user (not recommended) in the organization’s management account.

  2. On the Policies page, choose the policy type, and then choose the name of the policy whose attachments you want to examine.

  3. Choose the Targets tab, to display a table of every root, OU, and account that the chosen policy is attached to.

AWS CLI & AWS SDKs
To list all roots, OUs, and accounts that have a specified policy attached

You can use one of the following commands to list entities that have a policy:

  • AWS CLI: list-targets-for-policy

    The following example shows all of the attachments to root, OUs, and accounts for the specified policy.

    $ aws organizations list-targets-for-policy \ --policy-id p-FullAWSAccess { "Targets": [ { "TargetId": "ou-a1b2-f6g7h111", "Arn": "arn:aws:organizations::123456789012:ou/o-aa111bb222/ou-a1b2-f6g7h111", "Name": "testou2", "Type": "ORGANIZATIONAL_UNIT" }, { "TargetId": "ou-a1b2-f6g7h222", "Arn": "arn:aws:organizations::123456789012:ou/o-aa111bb222/ou-a1b2-f6g7h222", "Name": "testou1", "Type": "ORGANIZATIONAL_UNIT" }, { "TargetId": "123456789012", "Arn": "arn:aws:organizations::123456789012:account/o-aa111bb222/123456789012", "Name": "My Management Account (bisdavid)", "Type": "ACCOUNT" }, { "TargetId": "r-a1b2", "Arn": "arn:aws:organizations::123456789012:root/o-aa111bb222/r-a1b2", "Name": "Root", "Type": "ROOT" } ] }
  • AWS SDKs: ListTargetsForPolicy

To list all roots, OUs, and accounts that have a specified policy attached
  1. Sign in to the AWS Organizations console. You must sign in as an IAM user, assume an IAM role, or sign in as the root user (not recommended) in the organization’s management account.

  2. On the Policies page, choose the policy type, and then choose the name of the policy whose attachments you want to examine.

  3. Choose the Targets tab, to display a table of every root, OU, and account that the chosen policy is attached to.

Getting details about a policy

Minimum permissions

To display the details of a policy, you must have the following permission:

  • organizations:DescribePolicy with a Resource element in the same policy statement that includes the ARN of the specified policy (or "*")

To get details about a policy
  1. Sign in to the AWS Organizations console. You must sign in as an IAM user, assume an IAM role, or sign in as the root user (not recommended) in the organization’s management account.

  2. On the Policies page, choose the policy type of the policy that you want to examine, and then choose the name of the policy.

    The policy page displays the available information about the policy, including its ARN, description, and attached targets.

    • The Content tab shows the current contents of the policy in JSON format.

    • The Targets tab shows a list of the roots, OUs, and accounts to which the policy is attached.

    • The Tags tab shows the tags attached to the policy. Note: the Tags tab is not available for AWS managed policies.

    To edit the policy, choose Edit policy. Because each policy type has different editing requirements, see the instructions for creating and updating policies of your specified policy type.

To get details about a policy
  1. Sign in to the AWS Organizations console. You must sign in as an IAM user, assume an IAM role, or sign in as the root user (not recommended) in the organization’s management account.

  2. On the Policies page, choose the policy type of the policy that you want to examine, and then choose the name of the policy.

    The policy page displays the available information about the policy, including its ARN, description, and attached targets.

    • The Content tab shows the current contents of the policy in JSON format.

    • The Targets tab shows a list of the roots, OUs, and accounts to which the policy is attached.

    • The Tags tab shows the tags attached to the policy. Note: the Tags tab is not available for AWS managed policies.

    To edit the policy, choose Edit policy. Because each policy type has different editing requirements, see the instructions for creating and updating policies of your specified policy type.

The following code examples show how to use DescribePolicy.

CLI
AWS CLI

To get information about a policy

The following example shows how to request information about a policy:

aws organizations describe-policy --policy-id p-examplepolicyid111

The output includes a policy object that contains details about the policy:

{ "Policy": { "Content": "{\n \"Version\": \"2012-10-17\",\n \"Statement\": [\n {\n \"Effect\": \"Allow\",\n \"Action\": \"*\",\n \"Resource\": \"*\"\n }\n ]\n}", "PolicySummary": { "Arn": "arn:aws:organizations::111111111111:policy/o-exampleorgid/service_control_policy/p-examplepolicyid111", "Type": "SERVICE_CONTROL_POLICY", "Id": "p-examplepolicyid111", "AwsManaged": false, "Name": "AllowAllS3Actions", "Description": "Enables admins to delegate S3 permissions" } } }
Python
SDK for Python (Boto3)
Note

There's more on GitHub. Find the complete example and learn how to set up and run in the AWS Code Examples Repository.

def describe_policy(policy_id, orgs_client): """ Describes a policy. :param policy_id: The ID of the policy to describe. :param orgs_client: The Boto3 Organizations client. :return: The description of the policy. """ try: response = orgs_client.describe_policy(PolicyId=policy_id) policy = response["Policy"] logger.info("Got policy %s.", policy_id) except ClientError: logger.exception("Couldn't get policy %s.", policy_id) raise else: return policy
  • For API details, see DescribePolicy in AWS SDK for Python (Boto3) API Reference.

The following code examples show how to use DescribePolicy.

CLI
AWS CLI

To get information about a policy

The following example shows how to request information about a policy:

aws organizations describe-policy --policy-id p-examplepolicyid111

The output includes a policy object that contains details about the policy:

{ "Policy": { "Content": "{\n \"Version\": \"2012-10-17\",\n \"Statement\": [\n {\n \"Effect\": \"Allow\",\n \"Action\": \"*\",\n \"Resource\": \"*\"\n }\n ]\n}", "PolicySummary": { "Arn": "arn:aws:organizations::111111111111:policy/o-exampleorgid/service_control_policy/p-examplepolicyid111", "Type": "SERVICE_CONTROL_POLICY", "Id": "p-examplepolicyid111", "AwsManaged": false, "Name": "AllowAllS3Actions", "Description": "Enables admins to delegate S3 permissions" } } }
Python
SDK for Python (Boto3)
Note

There's more on GitHub. Find the complete example and learn how to set up and run in the AWS Code Examples Repository.

def describe_policy(policy_id, orgs_client): """ Describes a policy. :param policy_id: The ID of the policy to describe. :param orgs_client: The Boto3 Organizations client. :return: The description of the policy. """ try: response = orgs_client.describe_policy(PolicyId=policy_id) policy = response["Policy"] logger.info("Got policy %s.", policy_id) except ClientError: logger.exception("Couldn't get policy %s.", policy_id) raise else: return policy
  • For API details, see DescribePolicy in AWS SDK for Python (Boto3) API Reference.

AWS CLI

To get information about a policy

The following example shows how to request information about a policy:

aws organizations describe-policy --policy-id p-examplepolicyid111

The output includes a policy object that contains details about the policy:

{ "Policy": { "Content": "{\n \"Version\": \"2012-10-17\",\n \"Statement\": [\n {\n \"Effect\": \"Allow\",\n \"Action\": \"*\",\n \"Resource\": \"*\"\n }\n ]\n}", "PolicySummary": { "Arn": "arn:aws:organizations::111111111111:policy/o-exampleorgid/service_control_policy/p-examplepolicyid111", "Type": "SERVICE_CONTROL_POLICY", "Id": "p-examplepolicyid111", "AwsManaged": false, "Name": "AllowAllS3Actions", "Description": "Enables admins to delegate S3 permissions" } } }
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